Bush administration makes
last-minute changes in farmworker hiring

In a move that could have a profound impact in
California, the Bush administration has changed the
H-2A guest farmworker program.

The changes will make
it easier for employers to use, with relaxed wage,
housing and recruitment requirements, according to the
administration, which has warned that Homeland
Security will be cracking down on illegal immigrant
workers.

The little-used federal H-2A program allows growers
to import temporary workers for short periods. The
Bush administration's controversial changes to the
program, which were met with fierce protest by labor
advocates and lukewarm employer reaction, are expected
to be published Dec. 18 in the Federal Register and
take effect in January after Barack Obama's
inauguration.

In its final days, the administration "is making it
easier for employers to bring in massive numbers of
workers with fewer regulations and no oversight," said
Bruce Goldstein, director of Farmworker Justice in
Washington, D.C. He said advocates will explore going
to court or Congress to reverse the changes.

Only a tiny fraction of farm laborers are H-2A
workers in California, the nation's richest farm
region. Industry estimates are that many, if not most,
of a nearly 1 million-strong peak period workforce
could be undocumented.

Western Growers Association President Tom Nassif
called some advocates' concerns about the H-2A changes
"overstated." But he didn't express strong enthusiasm
for the reforms, either. He called the new rules "a
temporary fix" and said he would continue to push – in
unison with Goldstein and the United Farm Workers –
for Obama and Congress to adopt a federal bill called
AgJOBS, which would open a path for farmworkers to
earned legal status if they continue to work in
agriculture for three to five more years.

Since proposing H-2A changes in February, the
administration has received thousands of objections
and comments in response. The final rules were placed
briefly on the Labor Department Web site at midnight
Tuesday but then were removed.

Goldstein said the new rules will significantly
relax requirements that employers must show they can't
find domestic workers. Employers will be allowed to
"attest" in writing that they are meeting requirements
for hiring domestic workers.

A new method of calculating pay scales could drop
the H-2A minimum – $9.72 an hour now in California –
to minimum wage in many regions, Goldstein said. And
employers now will have to pay far fewer worker travel
expenses. For example, Mexican workers would have to
pay their own way to the U.S. border.

The mandatory provision of free housing for H-2A
workers will remain, but housing no longer will have
to be inspected by state or federal officials ahead of
time if an employer cites an "emergency" need to bring
in workers.

Erik Nicholson, UFW director of guest worker
affairs, said guest workers "could end up placing them
in a box down by a river." He added: "What's gone
unanswered by the Bush administration is what is going
to happen to hundreds of thousands of undocumented
farmworkers who will be displaced" if employers
replace them with H-2A workers.

Goldstein predicted that an influx of H-2A workers
will backfire, adding more people to the farm labor
pool, driving down wages and increasing the
possibility of more underground hiring.